Adventures in Cosplay!

[gammaraptor]

Anyone here have any ideas on how to make prop-guns that look good and are fairly durable? I'm thinking of doing a Sousuke Sagara Cosplay

[Zakenna]

Anyone here have any ideas on how to make prop-guns that look good and are fairly durable? I'm thinking of doing a Sousuke Sagara Cosplay

you could buy a toy gun and do the con mods(removing trigger and stuff), paint it, leave the orange tip. Or you could be awesome and make a resin replica by casting the original gun(plugging the barrel, sealing the chamber and magwell so no silicone gets in) but you'd have to be a little savvy with model building/prop making to make that happen and own the real deal or airsoft copy/have a friend willing to let you cast theirs.



theres also places that will sell you realistic looking resin guns but they're pretty expensive

if you're really concerned about the local police shooting you for having a real looking gun, you can go with a blue gun www.blueguns.com these are hard rubber copies of real guns. These are about as harmless as they come, most cons actually prefer you carrying these rather than resin copies.

Things NOT to do
buy an Airsoft gun and take out all the functioning parts

most anime cons won't allow this (at least Otakon, Katsucon, Anime USA to my knowledge. Probably a few others)

[Gramity]

Guns :O

[Grimarg]

I got my Tenshi wig \o/ So... this is extremely NSFW, open it at your own risk

[Bobsixtyfour]

Another update:

Previously on my camera mod.... batteries couldn't fit into the camera... so I had to save up some money for a dremel.... and it arrived today.

I just spent the last hour dremeling my camera...


so that these batteries can fit:


And THIS is whats gonna be powered by it...


Better watch out, this tengu is packin some HEAT. For those that don't know much about LED lighting.... CREE makes some of the brightest bulbs out there.

[Momiji]

So after craptons of driving around by Bob64

Spoiler:

(holycraptyvm)

, I'm now in possession of even more fabric.  This time, for two Kourindou Tengu outfits.



Also CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN~~  :3

[Bobsixtyfour]

Got up for some early mornin solderin.

Found some random wires... all arranged and ready to work in my "workshop"


After about 30 minutes or so, i've got everything soldered together...


Add some batteries and... wow thats bright.


Inserting it into the lens...


Wow it can really light up a room, except my camera sucks.


The light on the ceiling probably is the best display of its power.

Few issues that I forgot... a switch and a heatsink to dissipate the immense heat it generates... hmmm..

[Reddyne]

Word to the wise: Please be cautious when picking your fabrics! I've already ruined some sateen and now some silk by trying to make them into something they weren't intended to be used for. These are good fabrics for long, flowy things and not something that you should be making a detailed garment with a dozen seams, buttons, darts, belts, and/or what-have-you. Unless you've got plenty of talent, tools, and a fantastic sewing machine, don't waste your funds.

Oh, my poor bank account!

[Zakenna]

Hey bob how many batteries does that Harness hold? and are you running a resistor to that LED? Over voltage will kill your LED very fast

[Bobsixtyfour]

Harness holds 3 AAA batteries. I'm using NIMH rechargeable batteries with a nominal voltage of 1.2v.
Bulb appears (but i'm not sure) to be a Cree Q5 3W high power LED with a working voltage of 3.6~4.2v



Edit: did moar work on the F-pillow.


Yay! finally finished!



Moar progress:
Sugru encased neodymium magnets with reinforced wiring to keep it attached to the sloped wood block. Wood block is affixed with epoxy.


It's strong enough to attach to a bare-metal hairband... (will be adding magnets to the hairband just to make it convention-strength tough)


More camera stuff:
Decided to go with a dimmer light since the other light was wayy too bright (enough to hurt your eyes). So i rigged up another battery holder and salvaged a red led. 2x AAA at 2.4 volts, a 24ohm resister, and a random switch I found.


Rigged up a piece of wood to hold the led in front of the lens...


glue gun'd the entire bits of wire and stuff into the black casing so they don't wiggle loose and break the wire.


Stuffed inside the camera body..


And IT WORKS!!!


------- side project time
Cutting out the center piece... with my rigged up contraption to keep my fingers attached to my hands.


Chop chop chop!


LLLLIIKEE A GLOOOVEE~~


Rigged up contraption to hopefully make all the pieces uniform...


Making sure the side pieces are close to the expected length...


Everything fits together so much nicer when your design doesn't have major flaws (previous attempt)



Recut the center piece into pieces....


Glued the center and the middle bit. The raised pieces aren't glued yet.


Experimenting with stains on some scrap pieces of wood... simply because recutting all the pieces is way too much work.


The darkish brown stain without shellac sealing under.


Shellac with a bit not covered on the side (was planning on putting the brown stain there and the center and seeing the 3 variations side by side.

[gammaraptor]

F-Pillow, Hakkero, and nitori camera =D.

[Bobsixtyfour]

On the Aya-costume front:

Started working on the skirt...



SERGED!!!


Topstitched!


Hmm... might not be a 3/4 circle skirt after all... it drapes way too much compared to the reference picture.


Altering the 1/2 circle....


Test fit...


Mini Hakkero Section
Playing around with shellac conditioning and then staining....


The really dark piece has brown magic marker on shellac. o.o surprising that it looks pretty good.


After enough experimenting... decided to try it out on my main piece...


and it looks like shit if you look closer at it :/ Will have to try again after sanding it down.


Test fit. 1/3 of the pieces have been stained with the dark stain.


Gonna attempt to spraypaint the black marking on it or something. Created a stencil.


Sanded down and restained the middle segment. Stupid sanding marks. Also stained the other two dark sections.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

So I am now beginning  to upload videos from the cosplay event - cosplay invasion  @ penang  times  square, please check out my channel  on youtube linked on my sig or http://www.youtube.com/user/Hiimitsu/videos


well
I just only uploaded some 50 pictures from my collection

http://imgur.com/a/oNZOe#0

the event photos will all be here, so enjoy.
personal favorites from me are: Luka in stripes and tight skirt, Fumika from Mayoi Neko Overun~!, Hitman Reborn Panda-girl, Porkslope Brunestud, Ankh from OOO.

[Reddyne]

More words to the wise: Your scissors solve one and only one problem. Please reach for them last. I'm redoing an entire pair of pants because I accidentally cut the fabric so much that it made the pants tight enough to make Barry White sing like the Bee Gees. Now I'm completely remaking them and I'm none to pleased at using up a couple extra yards of good fabric.

[Bobsixtyfour]

Wise words indeed

On the Mini Hakkero front:
In an effort to fix the sanding scratches, i re-sanded and restained the center piece:


The 3 center pieces now:


You can only see one scratch:


Stained center white ring...


Erectin' a stencil:


Bob uses spraypaint stencil on scrapwood!!... It wasn't very effective... The spray must have gotten under the stencil somehow... will probably need some sort of sticky undercoating on the stencil to keep it firmly pressed to the wood....


Testing to see if enamel can be topcoated with shellac (now two different types of shellac, amber and clear) without bleeding all over the place....


Another testfit... (won't be glued until I've perfected the stencil technique).

[♛ Apher-Forte]

and we have another album from today's events.

Cosplay Competition was small, about 15 cosplayers showed up and only 11 competed.

http://imgur.com/a/edudF#0

[Zakenna]

2 things bob. Your stencil is too thin, you can't just use computer paper it's not thick enough you're going to have to transfer it to something like poster board or a manilla folder.
also you're going to need an adhesive. if you're going to stencil something use 3M spray mount. it's  a little tricky but you have some time before it sets, the thing is you do a light coat on the back of the stencil, put it on the piece spray it the paint and remove it before the glue completely dries. you'll have about 5-10 minutes to work before it sets in longer if you're working with fabric (but you're not)

method #2 is to use decal paper and decal the dharma in. This should be simple since it's black. It only gets tricky if you're doing other colors but you can use printable waterslide decals. Just make sure you grab a bottle of decal set solution. I perfer Micro sol. There's a shop in Chantilly called Piper's Hobby it's in the same shopping center as Game Parlor and Anime World so hopefully you're familiar with the area that should have the stuff you need.

[Bobsixtyfour]

hmm... since the spray mount is re-positionable, couldn't I let it dry on the stencil, and then stick it?
also:
Is the "thickness" of the paper only to prevent the paint from bleeding through? if so, then I've laminated it.



Well if I still can't get it to work.. I have a backup plan:
Mini Hakkero Lasercut Version:
Painstakingly assembled and held together by a rubber band and pieces of tape, also tweaked to create a pattern with the subtle color differences in the wood...




If your curious as to how a lasercut piece of wood looks when it comes from the lasercutting facility... This is apparently the underside of where the laser "comes out", you can notice the hex pattern of the grill thingy they place the wood on, they also masking tape the wood to prevent the charcoal from staining the wood surface


Mini Hakkero Standard Version:
a test run with the new stencil with rubbercement adhesive to aid it sticking to the wood... not bad, but could be better. Will try an adhesive spray next.


Meanwhile on the skirt front:
A fail ruffle. Doh.

[Zakenna]

not gonna lie your "back-up" looks sick you should use that instead

[Bobsixtyfour]

Mini Hakkero Lasercut Front:

Preparing to spraypaint the black parts of the mini hakkero...


Spraypainted.


Also stained the dark sections...


Staining the white sections

[Aoshi-shi]

Right, before I forget to post this any longer.

In the end, parents did most of the sewing because I'm not good enough with the sewing machine to manage doing it myself. But that's okay! I shall try doing most of the sewing myself next time. (I'm thinking Patchy, perhaps!)

[Momiji]

That is really cute.  ^.^

[Bobsixtyfour]

Nice costume XD!

Another update:

Mini Hakkero Lasercut Front:

Testfit the stained pieces...


Added the black spraypainted pieces.... missing one piece though

[Zakenna]

I'll just leave this here
http://fav.me/d4v092r

here's the sword by itself


I'll do a post with the inprogress photos and stuff if someone wants it. more pics of the shield to come later after AB or something

also

Aoshi: did you dye your own hair? that's pretty awesome
Bob64: where did you get access to a laser cutter?

[Bobsixtyfour]

Welp, all I can say is that.... Money gets you access to anything you want... for a price. And this is one of the more... pricier props thus far.  But I have enough pieces to probably make 3 mini-hakkeros to sell to anyone interested and make some of the cash back... since the pieces for one mini hakkero didn't fit on the smallest lasercut size, and no point in wasting the larger wood.

Oh, and Marisa is my 2nd fav character in touhou, and Masterspark is my favorite spellcard, which is why I'm even spending the time/money to make this mini hakkero when my cosplay is Aya.

[Jq1790]

Welp, all I can say is that.... Money gets you access to anything you want... for a price. And this is one of the more... pricier props thus far.  But I have enough pieces to probably make 3 mini-hakkeros to sell to anyone interested and make some of the cash back... since the pieces for one mini hakkero didn't fit on the smallest lasercut size, and no point in wasting the larger wood.

Oh, and Marisa is my 2nd fav character in touhou, and Masterspark is my favorite spellcard, which is why I'm even spending the time/money to make this mini hakkero when my cosplay is Aya.

Could always try making some kinda hybrid cosplay later, hm?  A tengu with access to the Master Spark and other magic...Yeesh, that'd be scary, hm?

[Bobsixtyfour]

ILLUSIONARY DOMINATING MASTER SPARK!!!!!!! XDDDDD
Picture a tengu flying around at a blur firing off master sparks

Prop Update:
Mini Hakkero Standard Version Front:

Spraypainted center piece with manilla folder and spray mount spray. 2 layers of black enamel.


Box o parts


4/5 layers glued together!!!


5th layer attached XD

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

I heard you would sell mini-hakkeros. I want one. How much? :VVVVV. (Mind you I'm going to have to mail you money.)

[Bobsixtyfour]

Not selling em yet. Gotta perfect the lasercut version first... all I have right now is a coaster-thick design, gonna have to try and make it like 1.3 inches thick or so. May also make it hollow and then add lights to one side of it, but getting the middle section of wood to look the same as the lasercut wood is going to be tough.... Well, it really depends on what you want yours to look like.... If I only glue a top layer to a solid middle layer of wood (which may not take the stain as dark, then it'll probably be cheaper then

To give you an idea of how much I've spent so far:
Lasercutting costs:
Making $79.50
Materials $4.70
Shipping $9.27
Lasercutting Total: $93.47

Stains: 20$, amber shellac 14$, black enamel: 5$

I can get approx ~4 mini hakkeros from the lasercut wood (9 front and back pieces / 2 = 4)...  and we're looking at LEAST 33$... not including shipping or labor involved.

[Dizzy H. "Muffin" Muffin]

This is pretty cool in general.

Following the Fuxi "Earlier Heaven" arrangement for the trigrams, too, I see ... ;-)